PM Kevin Rudd ready to borrow cash

29/09 Daily Telegraph | THE Federal Government is prepared to become a borrower for the first time in more than a decade to fund its ambitious infrastructure building program. Kevin Rudd is considering becoming the first Prime Minister in more than 12 years to take on net debt, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

Mr Rudd wants to fund massive improvements to city and regional transport systems, and he wants the "nation building" projects running as quickly as practically possible. The Government has already outlined projects to be paid for from the $20 billion Building Australia fund coming out of consecutive Budget surpluses.

Saving Abandoned Children - TOO IMPORTANT TO IGNORE!

29/09 Senator Helen Polly - Media Release | Senator Helen Polley has continued her campaign to implement 'Safe Haven' legislation in Australia with a speech in the Senate chamber today.

“Safe Havens allow mothers who may otherwise recklessly abandon their baby a chance to take them to a designated area and leave them to be looked after and adopted - no questions asked.  If Save Havens were present in Australia then children who may otherwise be abandoned and left to die may stand a chance”, said Senator Polley.  

The Senator reminded members of the recent cases of babies that had been abandoned in bus stops, driveways, outside hospitals, and on church doorsteps. Senator Polley has written to all State and Federal Attorneys-General to press home her campaign and is expecting a response shortly.

Howard says economy 'very strong'

John Howard awarded Medal of Freedom

The American Freedom Alliance, an LA-based think tank, presented Mr Howard with the award for being "a strong ally of the United States".

Asked if he was concerned Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the Labor Government would erode the economic fundamentals built up during his 11 years in Australia's top job, Mr Howard replied: "I hope the new government does not in any way squander the inheritance we gave them".

Israel: Petition to Washington

26/09 Ron Ross in Jerusalem | ... Former Israel ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold carried a petition to Washington. It called for Ahmadinejad to be brought before the international court on charges of genocidal incitement.

One of the first to sign the petition was Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Joyce declines Turnbull cabinet spot

19/09 The Australian | NATIONALS senator Barnaby Joyce says he will not accept a position on Malcolm Turnbull's new opposition front bench.

Senator Joyce, the maverick elected leader of the Nationals in the upper house this week, says he is unable to provide Mr Turnbull with a commitment to hold the Coalition line on all issues.

“At times there will be issues that there will, possibly, be a difference on, so on this occasion I humbly decline,” Senator Joyce told reporters in Canberra today.

Read Also: 'Thanks, but no thanks', Joyce tells Turnbull, The Brisbane Times | The Queenslander, who was this week made the Nationals leader in the Senate, has crossed the floor 21 times since he took his upper house seat in mid-2005.

Today he hinted it could happen again as he respectfully declined an offer from new Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull for a role in the shadow ministry. There's been suggestions the offer was made so Senator Joyce would be committed to accepting coalition positions. Senator Joyce said that wasn't a commitment he could make.

"You'd have to give Malcolm the respect that you would never intend to break from the line," he told reporters. "I couldn't give Malcolm that commitment because obviously the role of the Senate means that at times there will be issues that there could possibly be a difference on. "So on this occasion I humbly decline."

Australia's new Liberal leader urged to honour gay rights pledge

18/09 UK: Pink News.com | An MP who represents a constituency with one of the highest gay populations in Australia has been elected as leader of the Liberal party.

Malcolm Turnbull was environment minister in the John Howard administration, which lost power to the Labour party in November. Mr Howard became only the second Prime Minister in Australian history to lose his own Parliamentary seat. Mr Turnbull, 53, successfully defended the Sydney constituency of Wentworth, which after boundary changes now includes gay districts such as Darlinghurst and Kings Cross.

... The Australian Coalition for Equality welcomed his election and called on him to fulfill a promise made before the election, when he wrote to his constituents: "I have sought to address and overcome this [same-sex] discrimination. I pledge to continue this fight until justice is done."

... "Mr Turnbull holds a seat with one of the highest gay and lesbian populations in Australia, and has a reputation for supporting gay and AIDS issues. "We congratulate him on his appointment to the Liberal leadership and call on him to get on with the job of dragging his party into the 21st century."

Malcolm Turnbull, Leader of the Opposition - Liberal Leadership

16/09 Liberal E News | Well, it’s a great honour and privilege, humbling, to be elected today to lead the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party of Australia. Ours is a great party, a party whose values are as important to the prosperity and security of Australia in the years to come as they have been in years gone by because they are values that are based on freedom of choice, on respect for the individual, on fairness, on ensuring that Australia remains a land of opportunity.

I do not come to the position of leader of the Liberal Party from a lifetime of privilege. I know what it is like to be very short of money. I know what it is like to live in rented flats. I know what it is like to grow up with a single parent, with no support other than a devoted and loyal father. I know Australians are doing it tough and some Australians, even in the years of greatest prosperity, will always do it tough. We know that this is a tough world. And our job as Liberals is to ensure that our society is a fair one; a society of opportunity; a society where people can, like my father and I, be able to take advantage of those opportunities, to seize those opportunities and with enterprise and energy, and good luck and hard work, do well.

We are a party of opportunity and this, my friends, is a land of opportunity. Australians and Australia can do anything. We can do anything, but we need to have confidence, we need to have leadership. We need, above all, to have the opportunities to do well. And that is the great difference between our side of politics and Labor, because we believe that government’s role is to enable each and every Australian to do their best, to exercise their freedom of choice to do their best. Labor believes government knows best. We are not so vain as Mr Rudd. We know our job is to empower and enable the enterprise, the dreams, the ambitions of Australians- of all Australians. And that is what I commit myself to doing today as the leader of the Liberal Party, as the leader of the Opposition.

WA: New Liberal Government in WA

15/09 Liberal E News | The Liberal Party will govern with the support of the Nationals in Western Australia, following their defeat of Labor in last week's State Election. Under the leadership of new Premier Colin Barnett, the Liberal Party is committed to making local communities safer, fixing WA's health system and ensuring West Australian children receive the very best education.

Federal Leader of the Opposition Brendan Nelson said:

"This is an outstanding result for the people of Western Australia and its good governance. "Together with the Nationals, Colin Barnett will take Western Australia in a stronger, more confident direction, finally free of the cynical and under-performing Labor Government."

NSW: Get your act together Rees - Rudd

15/09 Julian Draper, News.com.au | PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has told the embattled NSW Government to get its act together and end the infighting that has damaged it electorally. NSW Labor copped a battering in council elections on the weekend and new premier Nathan Rees says the people have sent his government a strong message. The next state election is not due until March 2011.

Mr Rudd says NSW voters have told the state government "loud and clear that they have a very short time indeed to get their act together". "That's my view as well," Mr Rudd said today.

"The people of NSW are just fed up with any government which seems to be more concerned about itself than it is about the future of the state. "And that goes for any political party, whether it's the federal Liberal party or the state branch of the Labor party in NSW."
Both were being damaged by infighting, Mr Rudd said.

VICTORIA: Crunch time in abortion vote in Victorian Parliament

MPs crucial to the ballot include ministers Theo Theophanous, John Lenders and Justin Madden.

"But there could be wild cards," one minister said.

The Bill has sparked bitter recriminations in Labor ranks over Attorney-General Rob Hulls' decision to oppose change and the active role former minister Christine Campbell has played in opposing it.

One senior Labor figure said of Mr Hulls's decision to oppose reform: "It's unbelievable." Mr Hulls is yet to address the Parliament and detail his reasons

VICTORIA: Crunch time in abortion vote in Victorian Parliament

Both sides' number-crunchers expect the vote to go down to the wire, but there was doubt last night whether the Bill would be passed in the Legislative Council without amendment.

The Legislative Assembly was last night set to approve the abortion package after marathon debate over scores of amendments by pro-life MPs. None was accepted by the Parliament.

Strategists on both sides of politics were predicting a narrow pro-reform victory among the 40 MPs in the Upper House voting. But it was unclear if pressure might compel some MPs to block the Bill.

MPs crucial to the ballot include ministers Theo Theophanous, John Lenders and Justin Madden. .

VICTORIA: ALL proposed AMENDMENTS were DEFEATED!

The Abortion Law Reform Bill has passed Victoria’s Legislative Assembly by a final vote of 49 to 32 late last night (Thursday 11 September). There are 88 MPs – the Speaker doesn’t vote, leaving 87. Six MPs did not have a vote recorded on this Bill.
Debate on the Bill had resumed on Tuesday 9, with a ‘Second Reading’ vote (in principle support) of 47 votes in favour to 35 against.

Numerous amendments were proposed following that vote – these amendments, put by pro-life MPs and others concerned about some aspects of the Bill, covered a range of aspects, including proposals to reduce the ‘abortion for any reason’ time from 24 weeks down to 20 weeks, offering independent counselling, partial birth abortions, parental permission for under-17s, etc.

ALL of the amendments were defeated.

The debate continued on Wednesday and Thursday, until early in the morning.

Third reading vote: 49 to 32

For FULL VOTE list (word doc)

Total – 81 votes of 88 Members

[Speaker doesn't vote, 6 Members had no vote recorded - Graley, Judith – Labor; Howard, Geoff – Labor; Jasper, Ken – National; Languiller, Telmo – Labor; Marshall, Kirstie – Labor; Sykes, Bill – National]

VICTORIA: MP speaks of loss of 22-1/2-week baby

12/09 Paul Austin and David Rood, The Age | VICTORIAN Liberal frontbencher Martin Dixon has a very personal reason for being vehemently opposed to late-term abortions: his daughter, Monique, was born after just 22½ weeks' gestation.

Delivered at the Royal Women's Hospital in 1986, she was "really doing quite well" during her first day of life, Mr Dixon told State Parliament during an emotional late-night sitting on abortion law reform. But Monique quickly deteriorated and only lived one more day. "In the two days of Monique's life she was a person," Mr Dixon, the Opposition's education spokesman and member for Nepean, told a hushed Legislative Assembly. "She was a daughter, she was a sister, she was a granddaughter and she was a niece. She reacted to us, she reacted to light, she reacted to touch, she held my finger and she was a person.

"Because of that experience, I cannot understand how a baby of 22½ weeks can be treated as a foetus."

One year earlier, in 1985, Mr Dixon and his wife, Chris, lost another daughter, this time at 16 weeks, in "quite horrific circumstances". "Even at 16 weeks our daughter made her presence felt in my wife's womb and had, we felt, a personality of her own," he said.

NSW: Brown lied to Premier over underpants dance

12/09 Imre Salusinszky and Brad Norington, The Australian | NSW Premier Nathan Rees says disgraced former police minister Matt Brown lied to him on three occasions before confessing to dancing in nothing but his underpants at a drunken party in Parliament House on budget night in June.

As crisis continued to engulf the NSW Government, Mr Rees yesterday appointed Lands Minister Tony Kelly to the police portfolio after sacking Mr Brown late on Wednesday. The swift despatching of Mr Brown, just five days after Mr Rees assumed the premiership and promised a fresh start from a new ministry, came as The Australian revealed the short-lived police minister had danced semi-naked on a couch and simulated a sex act on a female Labor MP.

ABORTION LAW REFORM BILL
Second Reading
SPEAKER; CAMPBELL
11 September 2008 ASSEMBLY
Page 3536

Debate resumed from 10 September; further discussion of clause 4.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER -- Order! I understand it is the will of the house to defer consideration of the member for Pascoe Vale's amendment 5 until after consideration of amendments 6 and 7. Is leave granted to proceed in this way.

Leave granted.

Ms CHRISTINE CAMPBELL (Pascoe Vale) -- I move:

6. Clause 4, after line 7 insert --

--(a) the woman has been offered counselling by an independent professionally accredited counsellor; and--.

I stress that any suggestions made by the Minister for Women's Affairs or any other person outside this house or in the media that I have ever said that counselling should be compulsory is a total untruth and so far from good counselling and welfare practice that it is laughable. I have always said that women need to be offered counselling by independent professional counsellors.

Why do I ask for such counselling? The first reason is that the decision to end a pregnancy involves two lives. A woman has to be capable of knowing and understanding, and having time to consider and reflect on the implications of that choice. Should she not have the opportunity to do so, the effect of the abortion on her is even more profound than on those who have had the opportunity of attending counselling.

Pregnancy support has two components: the first relates to counselling to assist decision making, and the second is ongoing advice for material, emotional and other support during pregnancy. The aim of decision-making counselling is distinct from that of pre-procedure counselling. Decision-making counselling gives the person the opportunity to consider in more detail the course of action that they propose, whereas pre-procedure counselling takes the person through what they can expect during and after a procedure.

Exactly what is decision-making counselling, and what is the value of having it independently and professionally accredited? The value of it is that it provides the woman with emotional support, time and space so that she can make a decision that is reflective rather than panicked.

In my original contribution to the second-reading debate on this bill I asked people to think about the basis of the decisions they made when they were in a state of extreme stress, worry or anxiety -- when they felt cornered. Many women who are looking at having an abortion see it as their sole option; decision-making counselling enables them to look at options that they may not have even considered. Decision-making counselling allows the woman to talk through the problems facing her. How often have we all found that when we have the opportunity to talk with a friend and articulate what is in our intellect and our heart suddenly things become crystal clear? The advantage of an independent counsellor is that that person has no vested interest in the decision going one way or the other -- all they are interested in is listening, giving the person the time and opportunity to consider their decision and helping them in their decision making merely by letting them articulate their thoughts. Decision-making counselling also assists the client in clarifying her own sense of self.

Most of all, it enables a client to make a reasoned, rational decision, rather than a panicked or ill-informed decision.

Decision-making counselling should never direct the client in any particular way. The best outcome is that the client has the chance to make a good choice because her sense of panic and stress is eased and she can move forward confident in the decision she makes. Decision-making counselling is an engagement between a client and a counsellor; it is not a matter of getting a direction.

I moved this amendment separately and with pleasure because many members wanted to vote on this -- --

The DEPUTY SPEAKER -- Order! The member's time has expired.

Dr DENIS NAPTHINE (South-West Coast) -- I rise to support the amendment. I acknowledge and appreciate the contribution of the member for Pascoe Vale, who moved this amendment, and the decision she made to excise this provision from other amendments she had originally proposed.

In my contribution to the second-reading debate I raised concerns with respect to the need for counselling to be offered to women, their partners, their families and their support network prior to making what is a significant decision with regard to the termination of pregnancy.

All of us would agree that the decision a woman makes with regard to termination of pregnancy is a very significant one that has a major impact on the woman and those close to her not only in the short term but also in the medium and long term. We have heard time and again from women voicing the ongoing concerns, grief and issues that some of them experience with regard to decisions they previously made. Therefore I think it is absolutely essential that women who are making this decision be given every opportunity to make it a sound and considered one. If the woman's decision is made with support and the offer of independent counselling rather than with limited information and under stress -- and this is certainly a stressful time -- it is more likely to be a sound and considered decision that will result in the woman and the people close to her being satisfied that it was the appropriate decision in all the circumstances and being better able to live with it in the medium and longer term.

... I support the amendment. I make it clear that it uses the words, 'the woman has been offered counselling'. It does not say counselling is compulsory, but that the woman has been offered counselling by an independent, professionally accredited counsellor. In all circumstances a woman's decision to have a termination is a very significant decision, usually taken at a time which is very stressful for her and those around her.

In those circumstances, if we can provide an offer of counselling that may assist in good decision making, then we are....

The DEPUTY SPEAKER -- Order! The member's time has expired.

Mrs CHRISTINE FYFFE (Evelyn) -- I rise to support the amendment regarding the provision of counselling. At a time when people are considering abortion, for whatever reason, the feedback I am getting is that it is often a time when they feel very alone. Often the decision is made in isolation from the family because of various circumstances. I have also been approached by men who have been involved who, while accepting that the decision is being made by the woman, would also like someone to talk to. The offer of independent counselling, separate from the doctor who is performing the termination, is very important and is a reassurance to those who may have doubts, even if they believe what they are doing is right.

It is a reassurance in later time; when they think about it they will know they have explored the avenues and talked it through. I say again that several people have told me it is a very lonely time and that they would have liked the opportunity to talk to someone independent and understanding who would not try to persuade them one way or another but would help them crystallise their thoughts, because that is what counselling does.

Mr WAKELING (Ferntree Gully) -- I rise to support the amendment put before the house by the member for Pascoe Vale. It is very important that we understand that this amendment is seeking to introduce counselling which, as has been described by those previously, is voluntary. It is about availability of counselling. It is not about forcing women to go through a process which they may choose not to participate in. It is about having the opportunity available for women to take it at a time in their lives which is obviously very stressful.

As I indicated in my speech in the second-reading debate on this bill, I have concerns about the lack of involvement of counselling services. This community provides citizens with counselling opportunities on a range of issues. Those who are having problems with relationships are provided with relationship counselling. Those who are suffering stress or strain in their lives through grief are provided counselling. Counselling is provided for a whole range of reasons, and rightly so, because parliaments across this country have seen fit to ensure that those services are made available to people who are going through a difficult situation in their lives to try to assist them. We even provide it for financial assistance.

When dealing with a very serious issue, the potential abortion procedure, it behoves us as members of this house to provide women with the opportunity to participate in counselling.

If we were debating whether we as politicians were going to remove the right of women in the state of Victoria to have access to counselling services before an abortion procedure, there would be outrage from many in this community, and rightly so. All we are seeking to do is to provide that opportunity for women. I congratulate the member for Pascoe Vale on her amendment, and I will be supporting the proposal. ......

Mr Hugh DELAHUNTY (Lowan) -- This matter is very critical for this process and the bill being debated today. I strongly support the amendment moved by the member for Pascoe Vale, that women be offered a counselling service by an independent professionally accredited counsellor. I will tell members my story.

About 30 years ago my then partner -- now my lovely wife -- and I conceived a child. It was a most traumatic time back then. We needed all the counselling we could get because it was a very emotional time. We were young, we did not have a lot of life experience, and we needed counselling. We went through the agony of talking about adoption, and we touched on the possibility of abortion among many other options.

Thankfully we kept our child, but that was a very difficult experience in our lives.

I think a young person -- it does not matter what age they are -- needs support during that decision-making process. It is important that we as legislators, not the Victorian Law Reform Commission, come up with what we know is right not only for the mother and not only for the partner, but what is right for the unborn child. We must offer counselling.

We have legislation in this place which relates to IVF (in-vitro fertilisation); it makes it compulsory that the people involved have counselling before they have a child. With this legislation we are going to destroy an unborn child, yet we are not even offering counselling to those involved. Members must support this amendment.

I understand that the availability of counselling services is a problem in country areas. I hear the word 'choice' all the time but this is not only a choice for the mother, who no doubt will have a major say in this, but also the interests of the partner, and particularly of the unborn child who cannot speak, must be taken into account. We must support this amendment.

NOTE: Link-Zone has added the first names of MLAs only & key supporters of this amendment - for full transcript go to Hansard page

VICTORIA: Tomorrow the debate in the Victorian Parliament begins.